A nearly universal feature of human cancer is the widespread rearrangement of chromosomes as a result of chromosomal instability (1). Such structural alterations begin to occur at the earliest stages of tumorigenesis and persist throughout tumor development. The consequences of chromosomal instability can include copy number alterations (duplications, amplifications and deletions), inversions, insertions, and translocations (2). Historically, the ability to detect such alterations has been limited by the resolution of genetic analyses. However, a number of more recent approaches including high density oligonucleotide arrays and high throughput sequencing have allowed detection of changes at much higher resolution (3-15).
Tumor-specific (somatic) chromosomal rearrangements have the potential to serve as highly sensitive biomarkers for tumor detection. Such alterations are not present in normal cells and should be exquisitely specific. Rearrangement-associated biomarkers therefore offer a reliable measure that would be useful for monitoring tumor response to specific therapies, detecting residual disease after surgery, and for long-term clinical management. Recurrent somatic structural alterations, such as those involving the BCR-ABL oncogene (the target of the Philadelphia chromosome translocation), immunoglobulin (Ig) genes, T cell receptor (TCR) genes, and the retinoic acid receptor alpha (RARα) gene, have been shown to be useful as diagnostic markers in certain hematopoietic malignancies (16-20). However, recurrent structural alterations do not generally occur in most solid tumors. There is a continuing need in the art to develop tools for diagnosing and monitoring cancers.